Poll commissioners are not each other's clones: CEC Sunil Arora

Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Sunil Arora played down the differences in the poll body on Saturday, saying that election commissioners are not "expected to be clones of each other", and described reports related to Election Commissioner Ashok Lavasa recusing himself from meeting related to model code violations as "unsavoury" and "avoidable".

Lavasa has written to the Chief Election Commissioner (CEO) saying he will be recusing himself from Election Commission (EC) meetings as his dissent was not being recorded.

"The three members of the EC are not expected to be template or clones of each other," Arora said on Saturday after the row broke. "There have been so many times in the past when there has been a vast diversion of views as it can, and should be. But the same largely remained within confines of the ECI after demission of office unless appearing much later in a book written by the concerned ECs/CECs. I personally never shied away from a public debate whenever required but there is time for everything."

The CEC also questioned the timing of the controversy, saying that senior EC officers are gearing up for the last phase of polling which falls on Sunday, and for the counting of votes on May 23.

Arora asserted that in the last meeting on May 14, the EC had decided unanimously to form groups to deliberate issues which arose during the course of the Lok Sabha elections. "Out of the 13 issues or areas which were identified, the model code of conduct is one of them," Arora said in a statement.

ECI laws suggest a preference for a unanimous view but provide for a majority ruling in the absence of unanimity. The majority view is conveyed to the parties concerned, and dissent remains recorded in the file only and not made public.

NO TEMPLATE

• The chief election commissioner said there has been ‘vast diversion of views’ in the past, as it ‘can and should be’.
• He also questioned the timing of the controversy, saying that senior EC officers are gearing up for the last phase of polling which falls on Sunday